Fraser Park Restaurant – The German Lunch

For this post, and this post only, The Friday Lunch becomes The Wednesday Lunch. Wednesday is the day that owner/chef Anton Heggen of the Fraser Park Restaurant serves up his completely homemade, gut-busting German Lunch.

If you’re in the GVRD, the Fraser Park Restaurant is about as far outta the way as you can get. It’s down by the Fraser in Burnaby at (nearly) the end of Byrne Road. It’s kind of easy to miss. About 150 meters before you hit the river, hang a sharp right into an industrial park. Look for the big green awning.

You’ve got to get here early in the day. Closing time is two p.m., Monday to Friday. One thirty on Saturday…closed, for a well-deserved rest on Sunday. Starting at 6:30, six days a week, they put out a major-league breakfast. The German Breakfast is, still, hands-down, the best value/quality breakfast anywhere. A three egg scramble with all three favorite (homemade) breakfast meats for $7.50. The German potato pancakes are an excellent addition…thin and perfectly crisped. Stay tuned for the full German Breakfast post.

I first wrote about Anton and the Fraser Park last year. The first time I’d actually met him was way back in 1997. After finishing off a fantastic breakfast, I noticed he was at an empty table sorting out rocks. Being ever-curious, I wandered over, introduced myself, and asked him what the heck he was doing. Turns out the “rocks” were concrete chunks that he had beaten out of the Berlin Wall. As my Dad is a native Berliner and that his 60th birthday was coming up in a month or so, I wangled an inexpensive, yet meaningful gift.

On this day, I’m here for the German Lunch. In the interest of Full Disclosure, I received the German Lunch Deluxe at the same price as the German Lunch. Four meats, spuds, kraut and gravy. My German spirit says, “Bring It!”.

This is a tremendous plate. To start with, the mashed potatoes aren’t your garden variety. They are extremely chunky…loaded with butter and a whack of black pepper.

The “Poached Ham” is this plate’s standout. Surprisingly, this is the least salty of the bunch. Some crispy bits but mostly soft and tender, yet chewy hunks of very well-cured pork.

Although really tasty, this is not how I like my Sauerkraut. I like it plain and cold (OK, warm’s good, too). Not with mustard and definitely not with caraway. Sorry, Anton…that’s my only complaint! We Germans tend to be a slight bit fussy, no?

The Schnitzel is of the thick and heavy-duty variety…a massive slab of tender pork, nicely breaded and slathered in a dense and tasty beef gravy.

OK. I have one more complaint…don’t slather everything in delicious beef gravy! Everything on this plate is perfect, without gravy. The ham, the bratwurst, the schnitzel and the bacon are all incredible…there’s no need for a sauce. The sauce tends to make things indistinguishable. If they want the gravy, put it on the side and charge ’em for it.

Good stuff…thank you!
You were right with the caraway! Just around that time I started to toast all my Spices (Caraway, Pepper, Juniper Berries, and Mustard seed) for the Sauerkraut omg what a flavor explosion!
This has now been corrected.
Never can be fuzzy enough, Karl!